Raven
by toe walker
Summary: The capitol had won. Holly Raven, or Raven as her friends called her if they survived, had lost her mother and father to the revolution and she is not going to lose anyone else to the newly instated hunger games. But that might mean losing her own life. A story of the first hunger games.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everybody! This is a story I am doing with one of my school friends who does not have an account but was thinking about getting one. This is kind of her trial story. What we are doing is coming up with the plot line together, I'm writing the backbone of the chapter (if you've read my other stories you know how short those chapters are) and then she is filling in the holes. I'm going to refer to her as H.S Rose. So any time I say that, know what I mean.**

**Katniss- I still don't get why I'm not in this story!**

**Me- Well, it is from 73 (or something like that, it's summer. I don't do math.) Years before your games, so I think you should chill yourself out!**

**Peeta- but Gale and I want to fight over Katniss in this one! How can we do that if we're not even born yet?**

**Me-well you can do that in my other hunger games story (eventually)**

**Peeta- sigh… she doesn't own the hunger games!**

It's been so long. I can't even remember what day it is, but it's been as long as I can stand. My mother told us to go into the woods and stay there until it was safe. I've decided that today is the day that we would check. We had seen smoke rising up from district 11 until two days ago, and since then we haven't heard gun shots, or bombs. So I grabbed my 5 year old sister, Tina, and yelled at my 21 year old brother, Conner to follow me home, and we ran off to the fence.

I stared in horror at the shambles that was called district 11. The town center was covered in blood and assorted body parts. Shops have been crushed, and city hall was still red hot ashes. The houses had the least damage, but still some had been completely burned to the ground. People were lying in the streets, screaming, crying, or coughing up blood, and some were eerily still my worst fear is that they are dead, but I have a sneaking suspicion they are. Everyone else we saw was huddled around the bodies on the ground. My emotions we shot, my head was spinning, my feet felt like lead. I couldn't move, I could hardly breathe. I stood there for a moment starring in turn at the bodies unable to form a thought that wasn't are my parents dead.

We stepped over the white picket fence, which was now stained grey with ash. And we walked slowly through our home town.

I paused at certain bodies that I recognized, tears forming in my eyes. We reached our house which was not much more than a room surrounded by dirt and ash. I thought back to before we had left I was walking home from school, and I was talking to my best friend Sunny. We were talking about how much homework we were given, and how we would never finish it in time. Then we just decided that life was too short and it was a beautiful day that should not be wasted, and we just decided to play in my front yard. We suffered hard for it at school though, for just skipping our homework we both got lecture even though she was 2 years younger than me we both got the " you're setting a bad ex sample for the rest of the students now you must do today's homework and yesterday's homework by tomorrow or you will have detention for a month!" So that afternoon we finished our homework, but did not regret not doing it the day before we had the time of our life's climbing trees, picking fruit, watching Sunny draw chalk pictures outside my cute one story house. She was so good at them, and the afternoon was perfect. Now I only pray she's still alive. Tina had fallen asleep on the way here, but woke up from all the screaming. She looked around groggy, and she saw somebody that apparently she knew. Then asked me so innocently, "Raven, Conner, why are Mommy and Daddy on the ground?"

I turned around to see where she was looking. And I saw my mother, she was curled up in a fetal position, her breath coming in short gasps, Dad was hugging her from the behind, as if to protect her, but I couldn't see him breathing. My life seemed to freeze. I felt like my heart just stopped beating.

"Tina," I said, "I want you to get with Conner anywhere but here, I'll be there soon. Just go." I saw Conner open his mouth to speak but I stopped him before he could start. "Just go, I'll be fine." I said, "I promise." And he looked at me with those big blue eyes, and they seemed to have lost their light. Then he nodded at me and took Tina hand and led her away.

I ran over to my parents, a scream caught in my throat fighting to get out but couldn't, and I fell to my knees. Mom's forehead had a huge gash, running from temple to temple and a wound on her leg that was bleeding heavily. Dad had a spear through his back and did not even have a chance to live. I quickly did my best to bind up my mother's wounds but I knew in my heart that it was too late. I sat there until the last moment my mother said only one thing to me the whole time I was there and it was the last thing my mother ever said to me.

She said "Holly, Holly dear. Tell your sister and brother that I love you all, I always will..." Then I watched my mother eyes lose their light, and her body grow pale and limp as I cried

"I promise momma, I won't let you down, I love you! Momma, don't leave us! We need you!" I screamed from behind the tears that covered my face. My mother and father were dead. And I couldn't do anything to stop it. I walked over to Conner and the look on my face must have been enough to tell him, because he held open his free arm and I ran into his embrace and said between sobs,

"She told me that she loves us very much, Conner."

Then he said, "I know she does, Raven. I know she does."

**R+r**

**-toe**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone, I'm H. , I know this is under Toe's books but we are working together on it. I really hope you all like it, I was in the car on the way home from a vacation when she told me about another one of her books. I was so curious about the fact of fanfictioning that I asked her for the link and read it at my grandmother's house. I loved it, but I still found flaws and kept texting toe suggestions for her story, sorry Toe. Then I had a wonderful idea, toe and I should write one together. We agreed, and thought now would be a really good time, because toe and I are a year apart so now we go to different schools so we need to make sure we keep in touch until next year when I start her school next year. I really hope that you like Raven; I've done so much to make it a great book. I've even written bio's on all the characters and some characters you haven't met yet, and I've gone to the lengths to even draw them exactly as I see them. (I also drew the cover page for Raven, and I've drawn a cover for another one of Toes stories but haven't sent her the final copy yet.) I just sincerely hope you enjoy Raven. And we don't own the hunger games.**

**Thanks a lot Rose… haha just kidding! I agree I seriously need a beta… but you know? This is almost like having one… but different… because she adds stuff on as well. Yay!**

We cleaned up the town little by little. It slowly turned back into the home I once knew. Of course, the whole thing was slowed even more by the fact that we all had to work double shifts in the coincidentally unharmed fields to keep up with the amount of food the capitol wanted. With so many of our workers dead or crippled, it's extremely hard to keep up with the outrageous demands.

And since Connor is 21 he is legally obligated to work. He is working so hard. Two years ago, before the revolution, he worked as the town doctor, and now that he's back he is very much needed. Just to make things worse he has to work as a farmer in the fields as well. It pains me to see him come home, sunburnt and beat down, every day just to have a long line of people waiting in the front yard to be treated by him. But he never complains. He stays up all night sometimes just so he can treat everybody, even if they can't pay. He charges next to nothing for his services and they usually keep him up past midnight. Once he even treated a pet dog because the owners couldn't afford the vet.

I got a job as a peach picker. It is dull, brainless work and it gives me way too much time to think. If I had it my way, I would turn off my brain so I would not have to remember the pain that showed on my mother's face, the sight and smell of the pool of blood all around them. I threw away the pants that I was wearing that day because they had my parent's blood all over them. But now, every pair of pants that I have looks like they are covered in blood. My hands I think will always look tainted a sickly blood red. I will never be able to get rid of the horrors of that day. So I think of the good things, or good thing.

The one good thing was that I found out that Sunny, her older brother Travis, and their father, Mr. Dalger, made it through alive, but their mother had no such luck. She died the same day I got back. Mrs. Dalger was one of the sweetest people in the world just like Sunny. They loved her so much. I don't know how they'll manage without a mom, no wait I guess I do, I really do. I almost forgot for a second that… with so much mourning over her mom... I guess I... I almost... never mind, it doesn't matter.

Travis is a nice guy, at least as far as I know. I never really talked to him before, and now he doesn't really talk to anybody but Sunny. He understands what my family and I are going through. Every time I see him he looks at me with a smile, Sunny says that's a rarity because he hardly smiles anymore. But I've actually taken to going to her house more offer just to see his smile. What some people don't realize is that a certain kind smile can make your whole day better. Maybe those type of smiles are from the most unexpected people who have so many of their own problem that they don't have bother with anyone else's problems, but take enough time to help in the most beneficial way, by spreading joy with a smile. My parents always said a smile means more than an apology ever has, and I can't help thinking about that every time I see Travis. He'll smile at me even though I know he's dying inside, with is brown shaggy hair and bright light blue eyes he looks at me and smiles. His eyes which are always so burnt out like he would never be happy again, but would suddenly light up, his whole face lights up when he smiles, just like my dad's did.

Everything reminds me of my parents. No matter what I'm doing. Even distant things will pop out at me things I've never noticed like the way that Connor tilts his head to the side when he is thinking, just like mom did. The way Travis' face lights up when he smiles both my parents did that. The way that Tina bounces on the balls of her feet when she is exited, just like dad did. Even the flowers on the ground remind me of all of the times when I was younger that I would weave a necklace of flowers and put them on my father's head while laughing hysterically, or the floral print on my mother's dresses she used to wear and every time she did I would go outside and pick her a flower to wear in her hair.

Keeping sane is one of the hardest things I do right now. Too many times I find myself with tears running down my face while reaching up for a peach, and not even realize I'm crying. I've woken up from more nightmares than I can count in the past month. In some I'm drowning in my parent's blood, in others I am being forced to watch them die over and over again. But the most haunting of all of them is one of the most reoccurring; I am watching my friends and family die and not doing anything to stop it, not even screaming just looking at them like I was making it happen. But I was watching my self-do it like I was a ghost or perhaps I was my soul watching my soul-less body let my loved ones die, but I would trying and stop myself but I couldn't touch anything, the only thing that would happen is that my soul-less body would look at me with sick satisfaction on its face, or I guess my face... And that's what haunts me.

One day, we got called in from work early. It seemed a bit strange, but I was grateful for the break. We were told to go to the town square in the middle of the district for a message from the capitol. They had never done this before the revolution and it made me a bit nervous.

When I got there, I found Conner, Tina, Travis, and Sunny all together. Tina was in Connor's arms and we all stared at the huge television screen in anticipation. We didn't dare speak, to afraid one of the so called "peace keepers" the horrible brutes the capital sent each district to keep them in check would harm us for speaking badly about the capital.

The huge screen flickered on and showed a video of the "President" ha, more like dictator, her name was Francis Snow. She was skinny as a twig and always wore way more makeup than she needed.

"Hello people of the districts. I would like to inform you that District 13 has been completely reduced to ashes." I looked around in shock. I had no idea, and from the looks on everybody else's faces, they didn't either. The screen cut to a short clip of a city burning. It was frightening. Knowing that at any point the capital could do that to district 11. Then we saw the president's highly modified and make-upped face once again. "Now, I know that you all may be a bit scared of the capitol's power, all for good reason, but we want to show you how much we do care. But also that there are consequences for your actions." Her face hardened. "We have decided, that as penance for your actions, each of the districts will offer up in tribute one courageous young man and woman in between the ages of 12 and 18, who will commence to fight to the death until only one is left alive. This one tribute will be our sign to you that we will always forgive you." She started again in a sugar coated voice "This tribute will then be showered with money and fame. We will send further details to all of your houses. Come on up here Coriolanus and say goodbye." This last part sounded devious telling her new son to say good bye it's like she knows he'll be just like her someday. The President's son got up onto her lap and smiled. I must have missed his birth while I was in the forest.

And he said, "Bye-bye! And may the odds be ever in your favor."

The screen clicked off.

**Longest chapter ever! 1431 without the author's notes! I would say it was all my doing… but no, I can't really because a lot of the lengthening was Rose's doing.**

**i am kinda sad that we only got 1 review... sniffle sniffle... do you like it or not?**

**R+r**

**-toe+Rose**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone, its H. . I had a particularly good time adding to this chapter. And I think it's particularly good considering I wrote most of it on a 1 o' clock A.M flight to Boston from Texas. It was a 4 hour long flight and I only slept about one hour of it so I had 3 straight hours of writing and I still didn't finish so, I hope you like it because I kinda poured my heart and soul into it! You don't have to but I love reading you reviews, so thanks to our two reviewers so far! I will use ally listen to any requests and maybe toe could set up some preview or something for some of the reviewers... I really hope you like Raven, and we do not own the Hunger Games.**

**Thanks for the disclaimer! And it is true… Rose added almost 800 words to my previous chapter… but in my defense, I knew she was going to be flying and bored so I purposefully made it short… I know… but anyways! We decided that the 5****th**** and 8****th**** reviewer get a preview of a character that you have not met yet. Rose must have been seriously bored all summer because she wrote bios for ALL of the characters. And they are freaking amazing! So review! And I will pm you the preview!**

**I know I should be updating my other stories, but this one is addicting!**

I stood there, staring at the screen, waiting for something, anything. I wanted the screen to come on again to tell me that it was all an evil joke. And I stood here, not quite taking in the meaning of the words spoken, then it all sank in. 24 kids from the districts will die, and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The districts are weak and the capitol is strong, there would be no use in fighting after we have just lost. I started to lose control of myself once they sank in. I don't care how long I have stood here, once those words sank in I couldn't move, my heart was racing, my breathing quickened, the world around me seemed to melt away leaving me in my own world of panic. I don't know how long I have been standing here. It could have been anywhere from minutes to days. But I can't find the strength to pull my eyes away from that screen. Finally I felt a hand on my shoulder, which pulled me out of my trance, and looked up to; see Travis standing there with worry in his eyes.

"You've been standing here for almost an hour now. Everyone else when home, and Conner, Tina, and Sunny went back to your house. I told Conner I would watch you after you did respond to him after the announcement, but it's been a while, and I got worried…" he trailed off looking kind of sheepish and hastily took his hand from my shoulder and said, "We should be getting back now. Sunny will worry."

I attempted a smile but I think it turned out to be something more like a grimace. Which made me feel even more embarrassed considering he was watching me the whole time I was freaking out, and I didn't even see him. He led me back to my house, and I kept wondering if this was a dream. It couldn't be, I don't have this sick, horrible sort of an imagination. I could never come up with something as sick as "let's put 24 children in one place and leave them there to kill each other." No. it is too horrible for my brain to come up with it. It must be real. Or else I was not familiar with the ability of my brain to come up with such horrible things until now. So, it might be a dream, but I really doubt it.

On my way home I notice odd things. All of the make shift houses we had rebuilt after the revolution, are closed up, with the curtains drawn and the doors closed, and bolted. The streets are completely deserted except for Travis and me. When I got home, the usual line of people in need of my brother's help wasn't there. Maybe it had been a slower day today. Maybe everyone was too shocked and scared to come out of their houses. Well, whatever they were doing, it's a good thing they aren't there, he sure needs the rest. In the house, Sunny and Connor are sitting in the kitchen, discussing everything that has happened.

"What if we all just don't fight each other in the games? What would the Capitol do then? Just start killing us off one by one and call the last one a victor? I know the capitol is evil, but I can't see them doing that." Sunny suggested in her high childlike voice she always talks in, as we walked in. I thought it was a brilliant idea.

"No, they would. Did you not see what they did to this town? Did you see what they did to district 13! They would have no qualms over killing innocent children like you." Said Conner with anger rising in his voice.

Travis closed the door and interjected, "But Sunny makes a good point. Doing something of that nature would maybe not save the lives, but it would show the capitol that we will not stoop to their level."

Travis and I joined them at the table. Connor opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by a knock on the door.

"Delivery from the Capitol!"

I stood up slowly and opened the door. A young Peacekeeper with curly jet black hair the same color as mine, but his hair is curly mine is straight. And gray eyes, wearing an all-white combat suit stood at the door, holding out an envelope. "Good luck miss." He whispered and hurried onto the next house. I smiled. Just these three words made me feel just that small amount better.

I opened the letter and read through quickly.

Dear People of the districts,

We are happy to present to you the Hunger Games, a televised game in which one girl and one boy between the ages of 12 - 18 from each district will be chosen at random in 3 days at the Reaping ceremony. Please dress in your Sunday best for this lovely event. The children's names will be put into the reaping automatically once a year on their Birthdays, and will be added extra times if they need extra food, that we will happily provide for you. At the reaping the two tributes' names will be called and they will enter the stage, once both have been picked the tributes will shake hands, and then be transported by train to the capital for a week of physical training. They will also do a number of televised events in the course of the Games. Happy Hunger Games!

Singed, President Francis Snow

And May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor.

This was terrible, my heart lost whatever happiness it had gained, because not only am I of age, we also needed food, and I was the only one in my family that was between 12 - 18 so I was the only one who could get it. And The Reaping is on my Birthday, thanks a lot capital...

I can't look at the letter any longer, so I throw it on the table in disgust and stalk off to the bedroom that we share. I opened the door to the bedroom, not daring to look back; I couldn't stand to look at their faces as they read the letter. They called after me, but I ignored them. I closed the door, and ran to the bed. I threw myself on it, and curled up. Fighting off tears I hear a soft know at the door.

"Go away!" I shout, not caring who's on the other side. But the door opened anyways, and Sunny came running in. She had obviously been crying too, her big brown eyes, puffy and red almost the same color as her hair, but her face was still smiling.

"Raven, its ok, we'll be fine." She said to me starting to cry again herself. I sat up, and saw my own blue green eyes reflected in Sunny's tears. She came over and wrapped her freckle covered arms around me, and I lost it, I broke out in full on sobs. Sunny is 2 years younger than me, but she could be my mother, so sweet, kind, and caring for not only me, but everyone.

When I calmed down we went back out, our eyes still red and puffy we opened the door to find Tina sleeping in Conner's lap her blond hair going in every direction. But Conner was holding his head in his free hand pushing his light brown hair out of his face, and Travis was pacing the room, and occasionally clutching his head, both of them looked horribly upset. We opened the door, and they both looked up at us. Sunny burst into tears seeing them so upset. Travis rushed over to her, and scooped her up into his arms then sat down in the nearest chair. I had never seen Travis like this; he was holding her in his lap with both of his arms around her, holding her in a tight embrace. She was clutching his around his waist so tightly her knuckles were white. She must have needed this because she immediately started calming down.

"Will you s-s-stay the n-night please, G- guys?" Said Sunny between sobs.

"Of course" Said Conner "But, only as long as you dad and grandmother don't mind."

"I'm sure there just as freaked out as we are so I'm sure they'd let you" said Travis "Now we better get going or dad will start worrying."

**Really looooong. Not that it had anything to do with me…**

**R+r**

**-toe+Rose**


	4. Chapter 4

3 days later, I woke up for the first time15 years old. In books I read of the time before Panem, I think you could start learning to drive at 15, but nobody drives here. It's just another year for me, no different than any other, except this year the hunger games were to start, and the reaping is today. Great, just peachy. All of our odds defenetly don't work in our favor, I ended up taking out 3 tesseraes, because lord knows that we will need it. Sunny took out 1 and Travis took out 2. And because there is one in for each year we would have been in the games, plus the amount of tesseraes we took out, I have 12 entries, Travis (who is 16) has 15 and Sunny (13) has 4. I needed to face reality, having so many entries, it is very likely that I will be chosen because so many of the other children were ki-… are gone.

I went ahead and got up early to get ready for the day. I got wear a pale, soft purple dress that sunny lowned me that is hand sewn, and flowy. It's very pretty, even though she sewed it out of the curtains from her old house that were not badly damaged and she did not have enough material to make full sleeves. I think it is very pretty. I went to the kitchen to find breakfast all ready for me, a banana and a piece of toast. It was a feast to us. I smiled at Tina and Connor who were enjoying their piece of toast. I knew Conner worked extreamly hard to get the banana for me so I grabbed a knife and cut it into thirds and handed one to him. We smiled at each other, but other than that, we had a silent breakfast. I noticed something about Conner, he had been crying, his eyes were lined with red and when he saw me started to brim with tears as well. I know one thing, Conner thought I was a goner, and he never cries plus he's usually right.

After breakfast, we made our way down to the Square where the reapings were to be held. I was shaking uncontrollably, knowing nothing that happened today would be good. Connor took Tina down to a roped off section for adults and kids under 12 or older than 18 after he gave me a hug and kissed the top of my head unable to say anything. I got in a line with all the children of age. They looked horror-filled, all of them were shaking, some looked like they were going to be sick, others were crying into each others shoulders or into there own hands. When I got near the front of the line I looked around and saw that they seperatered the girls from the boys, and I saw Travis hugging Sunny telling her he would make sure nothing bad happened to her. Finally they were forsed to sperate by two peace keepers, and Sunny started crying as Travis was torn from her grasp and she was lead to where the other girls went. Then I felt an unexpected prick on my finger,

"Ouch!" I yelled as the peace keeper placed my bloody finger on a price of paper. I hadn't even noticed myself move to the front of the line.

"Next!" shouted the peace keeper who had just pricked my finger. I shuffeled my feet over to the girls and the only good thing that was happening is that the pain from my finger is takeing my mind off what was happening.

About half an hour later, when everyone was here, after the peace keepers had to drag a few people out of their houses, a strange looking man walked onto the stage. He had on a mint green shirt, and, if I was seeing correctly, mint green eyes to match. He also had a mint green card in his hand that seemed to have what he was supposed to say on it.

He walked up to the microphone on the stage and tried to talk into it but when he tried to, a loud, high pitch screeching noise came out of it. He seemed a bit taken aback about this as a man in all black, but with neon pink hair, ran up and fiddled a bit with the wires. When the mint man finished fixing his auburn hair with a funny flip at the end from when he had jumped away from the microphone, he stepped up and opened his mouth again which looked more like a slit surrounded by a scruffy auburn beard. "Hello, Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor! My name is Jurandon Foltor. I will be in charge of reaping and training of the two tributes that we will chosen today." He read off of the card." now here is a vidio brought to you from the capitol!"

" These Games are to remind you of all the damage you have caused." said the cold mocking voice of the president. At that point I wouldn't dare to listen any longer in fear that I would freeze up like I did the last time. Finally the vidio finished in what seemed like hours later.

Then Jurandon spoke again, "Now, the Time has come, to select one courageous young man and woman, for the honor of representing district eleven in the very first annual hunger games!" At this he made a dramatic motion with his hand as he reached to grab a slip of paper. Then he read this mint card looked up and read it again. "Why they call it the 'Hunger Games' I will never know. The game is about dying, not hunger." He looked back at his card. "We will start with the ladies! You know the saying, ladies first!" I think he was covering the fact that he wasn't reading the exact words from the card with that stupid joke and the fact he already picked a slipped when the wasn't supossed to was wrong. He walked over to the large bowl with a few pieces of paper in it, put back the slip he already drew and drew another one out, and slowly unfolded it reading it over and over again as if it would jump out and slash him if he said it wrong. "Let's see here," then he called out in a loud confadent voice,

"Sunny Dalger!"

I froze in my place. Plams instantly starting to sweat. My heart froze. No, not Sunny. She would never make it! She was too kind and caring to kill anybody, but I don't want her to have a chanse to prove it!

Sunny numbly made her way onto the stage. Her face of utter terror and he eyes brimming with tears. "Do we have any volunteers?" He asked reading from his card again, and I perked up. Surely somebody would volunteer for Sunny!

A few seconds passed and my heart sank realizing that nobody would. How could they do that she is like a mother to anyone she meets! Suddenly I heard somebody shout, "I Volunteer!" I looked around to see who it was until I realized that everybody was staring at me and I realized that I must have vollenteered in place of Sunny...

"NO!" Shouted Sunny's voice hoarse from crying.

"I VOLENTEER!" I shouted more loudly and confidently now.

Then I felt like I couldn't control myself, looking up at Sunnys' terrified, crying face and Travis' face that had gone bone white. And everyone was still looking at me so uncertainly like I didn't know the consaquences! But I was not loseing the closest thing my family and I have to a mother, I will not let her go!

"Oh! Okay then, go on back down now Sunny." Said the mint mentor. Sunny stared at me in horror refusing to move as I walked nearer to her. My emotions were shot I felt as if I would cry or slap someone. I couldn't decide which. I was simply paralized at what I had done that I couldn't do much of anything, I wanted to go into my place of panic because it was dream like compaired to now. I gave Sunny a quick hug and gently pushed her to the steps. Then I got up to the microphone. "What is your name Hon?" Jurandon asked me in a inappropriately sleazy voice.

"Holly Raven." I answerd.

"Okay, got it, thanks." He said as he jotted that down. "and your favorite pace to eat?" he added.

"Excuse me?" I said not knowing what was going on. His smiled vanished then he cleared his throat and said,

"Now, the boys." He grabbed a paper from the other bucket and opened it up. At this point it could not get worse for me right? Wrong.

"Travis Dalger." And the worst was confirmed. I wanted to cry. I had to either kill, watch be killed, or be killed myself by Tavis Dalger. "Shake hands you two." He said once Travis walked slowly on stage his hands balled into fists but looked shocked all the same. He was now on the stage. He offered a hand, but I gave him a tight hug. "Now, you will be allowed 2 minutes with your family to say any goodbyes."

We were taken in to the justice building for our goodbyes. I don't know what I'm going to do.

**So we got 5 reviews but not 8… sadness. Well the preview is null and void now so TO BAD FOR YOU! Have fun not seeing a preview!**

**Wish me happy birthday! Yup! It's my birthday so review!**

**I also posted a new Harry Potter fanfic today. Read it. Please.**

**OH! And H. got an account! If you are a Gallagher Girls fan, then go read her story! Its really good!**

**R+r**

**-toe**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi all! It's H. S. Rose! I hope you tell your friends about this story if you like it! Please review I absolutely love to read them! Hope you have a wonderful time reading this Chapter of Raven!**

**Ok, so it has come to my attention that sometimes H. S. Rose's name gets changed to H. so from now on I will always add spaces between periods on her name, if you are going to look her up, take out the spaces.**

**-toe**

**We own nothing**

I sat in a nicely furnished room in the justice building, in a state of certain shock, waiting for something to happen, when Connor came in with Tina in his arms. I ran up and hugged them as tight as I could, never wanting to let go. Connor whispered in my ear, "You were very brave." Which made my knees give out and fall on the floor. I was grasping Connor so much he toppled forward to. Tina started laughing because she thought that was HILLARIOUS and eventually everyone laughed; even I chuckled a little. They sat down on the ground with me too, and Connor just held me. I was grabbing his shirt, and crying into his chest.

"I'm so sorry," he breathed, "Raven; I just want you to remember something."

To upset to speak I just looked at him. He grabbed my face with his big, warm hands; forseing me to look straight into his eyes.

"It's a game, don't forget that if you don't win you die, and compition isn't a good thing. No one will be angry at you if you come home." Then, two humongous peace keepers came in and grabbed Connor by the arm and pulled him to his feet against his will. At the same time grabbing Tina making me scream. I screamed at them and ran up after Connor; I grabbed his hand as he shouted, "You have to come back!" then his hand was ripped away from mine; then door slammed shut. I sunk down to the floor crying; I grabbed my knees, and muffled screams into my dress.

But I wasn't alone for long, Sunny came in a few minutes after them and hugged me the entire time, sobbing into the dress she loanded me, occasionally getting a few words of thanks and luck.

"Why did you do that! I can't believe this! Raven, Oh Raven!"

"I-I wouldn't let you die." I said, "Sunny you h-have t-t-to promise me that n-no m-mater what help Connor and Tina; be the motherly figure I know you are, you always have been, just like your mother." I said through my tears. It only made her sob harder as she pulled a delicate gold locket from her pocket. "Connor was going to give you it but he didn't get the chanse so he asked me to. It was your mothers." She cried, holding me in a tight embrace; shaking as she pushed the small, delicate, gold locket into my hand. Then she was soon dragged out of the room leaving me in utter silence. That is until the pease keepers came in and grabbed me by the arms pulling me up from the floor. I was then taken to a train where Travis was standing; I tried to compose myself, and I managed to stop cring and put on a brave face. There, we were mobbed by reporters for about half an hour before finally being allowed onto the train.

When we got on the train, we were led by two official looking, very large, burly men into a room full of more food than I had seen in my entire life. This could feed all of district eleven for about a month at least! But it all looked so foreign; I was scared to eat most of it because it looked like it might be made out of plastic. I did hesitantly pick up a pastry looking type thing; it was a roll with some kind of fruit filling in the middle, and I nibbled on that a bit. It was surprisingly quite good, and I found myself eating about 3 of them with all different brightly colored fillings. Travis had found some food as well he sat at the oppiset side of the table; he tried not to meet my eye, but failed he ended up looking at me the mulitipul times I would catch him when I looked up from my pastry.

As I was finishing my last pastry (lemon, it was personally my favorite) Jurandon came in and slapped the food from my hand. "That will make you sick. The capitol food is much richer than you are used to. Don't eat too much or it will make you feel absolutely awful."

I lowered my head in shame (and a bit in sadness, that pastry was really good) as he continued, "I am going to be your guide to how these games work. If you do what I say, you will hopefully last longer, no guarantees, but it will certainly give you an edge.

We ended up talking for what felt like hours on end, but was only about one hour.

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked in defeat.

"You're going to win, either you or Travis. At least you should if you follow my directions, even though I've never played the games myself I at least know some more life saveing tactics than you do." he said confadently.

"OK then shoot, don't spare the details." said Travis unexpectedly.

"Well we won't have time for everything, but I'll have the time to get all the information to you by the time you get into the arena. First, you should grab what you absolutely need from the cornucopia, it will be in the middle of the arena you should be able to see the cornicopiea from the plat from you start on, don't you dare put your self in the middle of everything. If you do you WILL die." he said. Both Travis ad I looked at him with a look of complete and utter terror. Apperently Jurandon thought this would be a good conclution to our little chat for the day.

Afterward we were shown to our rooms. Mine consisted of a one person bed, a dressing cabinet, and a vanity. And I decided to take a shower before doing anything else, but it turned out to be the wrong desision. I ended up smelling like a mixture of lemons, roses, and freshly mown grass. I am sure the showers are nice when you know how to use them, but that combination of smells is not all that pleasent together. They called me to dinner and after throwing on a ruby red tank top with jewels embroidered onto the top, and a pair of black pants made out of a soft stretchy material. I went down to the dining car. I found Travis and Jurandon already there discussing something that I'm going to guess had to do with me because when I walked in they both stopped talking at once.

"Hello, sweetheart how do you like the train? Brand new you know?" Jurandon said in the sleezey voice he used at the reaping.

"It's something I wish I would never have had to see." I replayed bitterly.

"Fine, I guess I shouldn't be flirting with you anyways."he said obviously taking my comment as a regection.

"So that's what you were doing." I said meaning it as an insult on his flirting abilities. "So what where you talking about?" I asked.

"Just about how to work the showers, but your presents awed us to silence." He relied, obviously proud of his fantastic lie.

"Fine, well I'd like to know how to work the showers too, I smell of an unpleasant combination of lemons, roses, and mowed grass." I said attempting to lift there spirits he actually did explain the shower to us, which was nice so I won't smell horrible tommorow. We finished up diner and I went back to my room. Then I changed into a flowing, yellow night gown with a ribbon weaved into the hem and waist.

Once I got into bed I couldn't stop THINKING. And thinking was one thing I do not want to do at the moment. I wish I had a book, because if I fall asleep reading them, I do not have to think about life. I can escape away into the world of somebody else for a while. And that can be a great relief. What I wouldn't give to be somebody else; someone in a book, someone who is anyone but me in this moment. I managed to cry myself to sleep at about 2 o'clock in the morning. I had a completely dreamless night; it almost felt like I blinked, and when I opened them up again it was to hear Jurandons' voice calling for me.

"Holly, it time to get up. You have to get ready we are arriving at the Capitol today!" he said exsitedly.

"No..." I said groggily, "I don't wanna go..."

"Now come on Holly it's gonna be great there gonna love you!" he said in a loving voice.

"Why are you being so nice?" I asked him, still half asleep.

"Because I feel bad for trying to flirt with you." he said, "Now get up, up, up! breakfast is almost ready!" he said with enthusiasm.

"Fine," I said as I threw off the covers.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey its Rose, I'm sorry it's been like 20 years, but with school and two authors, and a serious case of writers block we had a little trouble getting it done. Toe and I even tried switching jobs. I usually add in the detail and length of the chapters while also trying to correct any grammar issues (not to great at that) and toe well does the hard part of writing the backbone of the chapter. This time I wrote the backbone and she did the detail! Tell us how you like our fun experiment and have fun reading Chapter 6!**

**Hi, its toe, yah… guilty on the writer's block part… I have problems… but anyhow I think she really has the hard job with adding in all the detail, plus she draws and all did character summaries and stuff… my job is not that hard… anyway it's here now and Rose pretty much wrote this one, I edited and added a bit and then sent it back to her and she added like a hundred more words! She is amazing I'm telling you.**

**We don't own.**

Travis and I ate silently as Jurandon rambled on about the Capitol, "Oh my god you're going to love it. It's just beautiful, with exquisite culture and _blah blah blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah_" I stopped listening after a while of that. The food was great, but I made sure to control myself on how much I ate. Yesterday was still embarrassing and disappointing. That pastry was still really good and I wish I was able to eat it… but they did not serve it at that meal apparently…

"You two should get ready we'll be at the Capitol soon!" said Jurandon pulling me out of my thoughts which were so crowded I couldn't focus on one idea for more than a few minutes. So Travis and I got up and walked to our rooms. All the clothes in the closet look kinda weird, but I pick out the least weird and I brought it to the bathroom where I took a shower (while actually smelling like a human being this time.) I looked at my reflection in mirror the color blocked dress was way too low cut and made me look super skinny.

I looked in the closet and realized I picked the longest skirt and highest cut top, so I modified it. I called in Jurandon and asked him for a needle and thread, when he came back with some I grabbed a black dress which was practically underwear and a bra with two straps connecting them, and cut a piece out that I sewed it onto my own dress on the top and the bottom. I felt good about my dress now because my cleavage wasn't hanging out anymore, and I could bend down without people being able to look up my skirt.

I picked out some black shoes to go with my red and blue and black dress, and I put on the gold locket engraved with pink roses from back home. I opened it up to find a picture of my mother on one side and my father on the other. At that moment the urge to break down and cry was unbelievable, but I didn't. Then I reluctantly left my room for the last time and rejoined the others. I hated this train, but it is much better than the Capitol. At least when I'm on the train I know it has the ability to take me home. I know it never will, but it could. For the first time since we left I walked in to find Travis talking and actually speaking not just replying.

"How many days will it last?" he asked

"Well it varies depending on how quickly people go, but it won't be much longer than 2 weeks." said Jurandon. Travis grunted in comprehension.

"So have any hints that are actually helpful today?" I asked making them both jump out of their skin, because I crept up behind them. It was actually really funny, I put in the back of my mind the image of man in a sequined suit jumping is really ws quite halarious to watch two grown men that are completely different react in the same way, but have one look so much funnier than the other.

"My god Holly! Don't do that!" he shouted, sounding truly angry for the first time. "Now that I've lost a year of my life-" I cut him off

"Oh I would offer you one of mine, but wait I won't have even a year unless you can give me hints that could save my life!" he looked at me like he had never realized that I might die, he looked at Travis the same way like it all hitting him at the same time. He frowned as if in pain but I couldn't feel sympathy for him, after all, I'm the one who will be dying in a few weeks right? He couldn't really complain.

"I'd like some tips too." Travis said because I'm pretty sure Jurandon wasn't going to tell me any because of my scareing him, and the fact that I couldn't contain my laughter wasn't helping. But since Travis did nothing wrong it would be rude not tell Travis helpful hints; the fact I was in the room shouldn't effect his manners.

"Well, as much as it wasn't nice a moment ago, the Hunger Games is not a nice game so sneaking up on people would be a good idea. Even if you don't have the physical advantage surprising your victim would give you a life saving edge." Hmm… actually, a good idea… I hadn't thought of that, but I suppose my little joke could be turned into a killing technique. I shuddered at the thought; I hope that I don't have to kill that many people…

Then the train started to slow, and I started to tremble. I looked out the window; millions of people were waiting at the station. Almost all with small weird featured, I saw a few people with cat tails, a few people with green or pink skin. Then I noticed the station itself. It was green and shiny; it looked brand new, and yet our little district slept in shacks at night and all of the kids were grateful if they had a mother or father to run to. I hated these people they killed my parents, but obviously they loved watching us come in to die in their stupid games.

"Oh, and working the crowd would be a good idea as well." he added concluding the conversation. I grabbed Travis' arm and pulled him to the window, plastering a fake smile onto my face, making everything as over exaggerated as I could for these people who were obviously used to overdoing everything from smiling to cat tails, I mean, seriously? Cat tails? Travis shot me a confused glance.

"Smile," I told him, "And wave."

**The cat tails was my (toe's) idea… I love that!**

**R+r!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi you guys! It has been waaaaaay to long… again… I'm sorry, it is mostly my fault, I have issues with this story, I think that once I get into the games I will be able to get it done better/faster because at this point I just… don't know what to write. So I ended up writing only like… 300 words on this when I sent it to Rose and she went and made up two completely new characters (which you will meet in this chapter, they are really fun characters to write for and think about.) then worked them into this chapter and added like 700 more words on… DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG. She is awesome, I am so happy to get to work with her in this story as well as in any other things we do at school (we are both big theater buffs so we see each other at those types of things) I should stop rambling now… enjoy!**

**~toe**

**Hello everyone Rose here. It's definitely been a while, I hope we didn't dampen your spirits because now it's really gonna get interesting from here on! Just keep reading.**

**~H. S. Rose**

_"Smile," I told him, "And wave."_

By the time we had finished with all the waving and smiling, and smiling and waving, my cheeks were about to fall off and my wrist hurt like crazy, but I think in Travis and I sacrificing our wrists we made the Capital clowns happy and more ready to sponsor us. More happy to see one of our smiling faces come back.

When we got out of the train, I was amazed to see that what I saw out the window wasn't even the half of the strange but beautiful things that were in the capitol on our route here. I saw people with multiple sets of eyes, people with huge ears and noses, and people with bright pink skin. It was freaky to come from district eleven is like coming from a different planet completely; one that was similar to ours but so different that I had no idea what to do. But there are some things that the Capitol couldn't get rid of, underneath all of the glitz and glamor I could see columns and domes and really amazing, ancient structures that the capitol couldn't get rid of without completely rebuilding the whole city. The architecture is simply astounding, just the fact that something so beautiful could still hide behind all of the Capitols crap. It reminded me of home. When I looked at my district before the war I didn't see poor people wasting their lives picking food for the Capitol like slaves; I saw beauty, and comfort, and the people I loved. And looking at the Capitol at first I saw a sickening sight, but now I look closer I see a beautiful city that has been captured and covered with crap. **(A/n, I know that on maps the capitol is in like Utah or something, but this one is in Washington D.C. so deal with it, I think I have the right to change the location if I want to.** **~toe)**

We walked into a big, tall building with tons of people with cameras in the front. I probably got at least fifty microphones shoved in my face and a hundred of the most random questions asked. But I kept my smile on my face and nodded to the stupid reporters as I walked into the lobby of what looked like a big hotel. And I turned around to see one of the more annoying reporters sticking a microphone in a tall blond boys' face, when the other tribute went up to the reporter and did exactly what I wanted to do since no one else in our bloody town would volunteer for Sunny at the reaping, and she punched the reporter in the face.

"Don't you dare talk to my brother like that!" She said at two huge guards came and grabbed her arms. She struggled against the men her light brown hair being tousled in her struggle. Then the boy, who I'm guessing is the brother, came up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder which seemed to calm her instantly.

Then we were stuffed into an elevator and my stomach lurched as the metal box went up. I've never been in an elevator before and found that having a glass and metal box carry me and other multiple people to higher and higher floors is an awful way to get to the rooms that lie on the other floors; I find stairs much safer. The doors finally opened and we were in our 'suite'. It was… colorful. Apparently the latest 'thing' was to have lots of color which sadly means really, really uncomfortable chairs. They're all really colorful, hard boxes with backs. I took the rest of the day to roam around the floor, and find out more about what I was going to spend a few of my last pampered days in.

I finished roaming when Jurandon called for us to come to dinner.

"So how's the Capitol?" He asked like he thought that we were just as existed to be here as he was.

"It's fine I guess." Travis said.

"Just fine?" Jurandon cried "this place is wonderful! It's so much nicer than where I grew up."

"Where you grew up, you always had enough food to feed your family every day; I didn't." Travis shouted "I'm not saying this place isn't nice I'm saying that it's not welcoming, or comforting. Please excuse me, I'm going to bed." Then he got up and left. Jurandon and I caught each other's eye and he gave me a look of utter disbelief, and I returned him a glance that told him 'you've seen where we lived, you should have known not to say that.' And I left for my room too.

My room; which I realized was the only place I hadn't looked through, was much more my speed. Unlike the rest of the Capitol, it had more mellow colors, blues, greys and purples. Very much like district eleven, at least the neighborhood part the crops were very green. And the bed was probably the softest thing I've ever felt. Now that I think about it, the bed on the train was really soft as well but I didn't have time to think about that with all of the other thoughts running through my mind. But now that I was actually at the Capitol, those worries vanished it seemed. I guess I know what to do now. I need to make sure Travis comes home. Sunny needs him; her dad might not be around for as many years as she needs him. Connor can take care of Tina for a long time and I know Sunny and Travis would too. He needs to come home, and I need to make sure he does.

**R and r**

**~toe and Rose**


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